[1THING] Blog: Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Toxic pollutants at contaminated sites affect the health of more than 200 million people worldwide. Women and children are especially at risk suffering neurological and immune system damage and an early death. The number of people affected is comparable to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria combined. Plus, solving pollution problems usually promotes, rather than inhibits, economic growth. Yet, pollution is one of the most under-reported and underfunded problems in the world.

Why Support Pure Earth?

Pure Earth is an international non-profit organization dedicated to solving pollution problems in low- and middle-income countries, where human health is most affected by pollution. Pure Earth devises clean-up strategies, empowers local champions and secures support from national and international partnerships. Since its inception in 1999, Pure Earth has completed more than 80 clean-up projects in 20 countries. This has reduced exposure to toxins for local populations, especially children.

Share Pure Earth’s posts on social media. Use Twitter @PureEarthNow, Facebook, and LinkedIn to raise the profile of toxic pollution, which disproportionately kills those in low and middle-income countries.

Make a donation. Better yet, organize a group of coworkers to make donations. Ask your employer to match it.

Join the Pure Earth Corps of volunteers. Work solo, with a group of colleagues or friends, adopt a project, and raise funds.

Host a “Toxic Cocktail Party” educational event. Pure Earth does the work; you create the guest list. Artisanal “toxic” cocktails are created just for you!

After the meal, fill your dishwasher to capacity before running it. You will run fewer cycles, which saves energy.

Wash and reuse empty glass and plastic jars, milk jugs, coffee cans, dairy tubs, and other similar containers that would otherwise get thrown away. These containers can be used to store leftovers.

Show your guests where to put recyclables such as aluminum, glass, and plastic beverage containers.

Avoid placing hard, thick, or waxy food scraps down the drain. These materials can clog the pipes or damage garbage disposal blades and send parts of your sink to the landfill before their time.

Buy products in concentrate, bulk, or in refillable containers. Many items are available in these sizes. They reduce packaging waste and can save you money! Combine waste reducing practices, such as buying coffee in bulk and storing it in your leftover empty coffee cans.

Instead of firmly planting yourself in front of the TV for the day, consider getting some fresh air or playing a board game. Take advantage of the time together with friends and family while decreasing your energy usage.

If you going away from home for the holidays, to save energy, turn down your thermostat and put lights on timers.

November is an excellent time of year to conduct neighborhood food or clothing drives to help those in need.

True and lasting change happens when the power of the law is on your side. That’s why the earth needs a good lawyer.

Today’s environmental challenges are greater than ever. But we live in a country of strong environmental laws—and Earthjustice holds those who break our nation’s laws accountable for their actions. We’ve been the legal backbone for more than a thousand organizations across the country, large and small. And we represent every one of our clients free of charge.

Behind nearly every major environmental court battle—from protecting gray wolves from slaughter to representing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their fight against the Dakota Access pipeline- you’ll find an Earthjustice attorney.

As the nation’s largest nonprofit environmental law organization, we’re committed to the vision of a just and sustainable future. Join us.

The Surfrider Foundation is dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s ocean, waves and beaches through a powerful activist network.

Our ocean faces growing challenges from pollution, offshore development and climate change. At the same time, expanding industries, such as offshore oil drilling, threaten to crowd our ocean and degrade its health (and those who call it home!).

Every day poses new threats to our oceans and beaches. Our ocean and special places must be proactively protected before they are threatened and stem the tide before further damage is done to the ocean’s health.

This is precisely why Surfrider has built a network of passion-driven people who are on the ground and are the voice for our ocean and beaches. With one foot in the sand and the other in the water, Surfrider is the only non-profit organization who is 100% focused on our coasts.

In fact, species have been going extinct for millions of years from geological and climate changes. The issue now is from overconsumption, pollution, and habitat destruction brought on by humans causing more species to needlessly become extinct.

So why should we care about sea turtles extinction in particular?

For starters, sea turtles help maintain the health of sea grass by eating it. Healthy sea grass allows other oceanic species such as crustaceans, fish, and shellfish to be able to breed. This would impact a huge source of food for humans.

In addition, when sea turtles lay eggs in dunes, the shells and unhatched eggs left behind provide nutrients that facilitate vegetation growth. This strengthens the beach’s ecosystem as a whole and helps prevent erosion.

“Our national parks are a uniquely American idea, truly supported by all of us. We are inspired by the beauty that surrounds us. We seek the wild and untamed land, the places where history was made, the sites that honor our heroes, and we stand behind what really matters – protecting these sacred places.”

About:

The National Park Foundation, the official charitable partner of the National Park Service, enriches America’s national parks and programs through the support of private citizens, park lovers, stewards of nature, history enthusiasts and wilderness adventurers.

Chartered by Congress in 1967, the Foundation grew out of a legacy of park protection that began over a century ago when ordinary citizens took action to establish and protect our national parks.

Today, the National Park Foundation carries on the tradition of early park advocates, big thinkers, doers and dreamers. It works to keep trails clear, partners with collaborators such as the White House to get kids outdoors, and most importantly, raises and allocates critical funds to keep our national parks safe.

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.”

– John Muir, early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the U.S.

The Trust for Public Land works to protect the places people care about and to create close-to-home parks and wild spaces—particularly in and near cities, where 80 percent of Americans live. Their goal is to ensure that every child has easy access to a safe place to play in nature. The TPL also works to conserve working farms, ranches, and forests; lands of historical and cultural importance; rivers, streams, coasts, and watersheds; and other special places where people can experience nature close at hand.

An acre of rainforest contains up to 86 different species of tree, with the amphibians, birds, insects and mammals that depend on them.

Forests are our respite. Our places of peace. Our natural air filters. Our water factories. Our medicine cabinets. We literally can’t live without them. Despite their immense value, nearly half of the world’s forests have been lost. What’s worse, we’re cutting them down at greater rates each year to plant crops, graze cattle and generate income from timber and other forest products.

No matter where you live, forests make your life possible. When a forest is lost anywhere, people feel it everywhere.

Conservation International’s Mission:

Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, Conservation International(CI) empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the well-being of humanity.

CI’s solutions:

For nearly three decades, CI has worked to ensure the world’s most important forests are protected for future generations. That work has helped to place nearly 40 million hectares (nearly 99 million acres) of forests under protection.

CI has been working to make the sustainable use of forests the foundation of healthy societies around the world. They’re carrying out science that’s helping to better understand forests’ value, and they’re working with local communities to test new ways of conservation that provide more benefits to people.

Friends of the Earth is an international environmental protection organization that “strives for a more healthy and just world”. Their work pushes for reforms politically on a large scale as well as smaller community networks focused on the preservation of shared Earth resources.

“We understand that the challenges facing our planet call for more than half measures, so we push for the reforms that are needed, not merely the ones that are politically easy.” – FOE

Together they have 75 national member groups collaborating for the international conservation effort, representing more than two million activist in more than 60 countries. In the United States, FOE works with Congressmen, state authorities and community groups in all 50 states to urge policymakers and community leaders to “work towards a healthy envirornment for all people.”

Throughout their 47-year history, Friends of the Earth has been working “to change the perception of the public, media and policy makers” and institute global environmental protection efforts. Their main efforts go specifically to curbing the environmental degradationon drivers like public investment, granting corporations the right to pollute, or other factors on federal and state levels.

What Makes FOE Different:

They fight for what’s needed over the longer term for all creatures on our planet, not for what is easy or popular in the short term

They are a loud and fearless voice for the environment and have been for 47 years

They act globally and locally, with a worldwide networks of activist in 75 countries (and counting)

They know that solving deep-rooted environmental problems requires exposing and fighting the economic forces that fuel them

They employ a variety of tactics such as policy analysis, grassroots activism, litigation and creative communication to win their campaigns fairly.

What FOE Has Achieved:

Limits the Air pollution from Ships

Persuaded Thousands of Grocery Stores to Commit to Not Selling Genetically Engineered Salmon

Stopped Construction of Dangerous Nuclear Reactors

Exposed Corruption in the Review of the Keystone XL tar sands oil Pipeline.

On an international level they have collaborated to bring projects like the Climate Justice and Energy Program giving communities the right to choose thier own sustainable energy sources, and working with the UN negotiators to agree on climate finance and ending deforestation.

They also have started a Food Sovereignty program aimed to halt genetically modified organisms from human consumption. FOE is also responsible for the Forest and Biodiversity program that campaigns against illegal logging and deforestation and works with communities to manage their forest as well as opposing and exposing the negative impacts of monoculture plantations of cromps like sugar cane, palm oil and soy.

In a statement on their website FOE describes their battles to protect the environment as, “Hard work. But the pressures facing our planet and it’s people are too important for us to compromise.”